


Meeting of Queens (A Battle of Nature)

by perrstein



Category: overwatch
Genre: F/F, hey what's up my name's BD and I'm back on my seelie queens hatefucking bullshit
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-07
Updated: 2017-11-07
Packaged: 2019-01-30 20:38:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,009
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12660993
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/perrstein/pseuds/perrstein
Summary: The start of a game that's stretched through the years."To take revenge halfheartedly is to court disaster; either condemn or crown your hatred." - Pierre Corneille





	Meeting of Queens (A Battle of Nature)

**Author's Note:**

> My October fic was voted to be Overwatch, and Moira's release was too damn tasty to not toss my other work out for it.

_"I am pretty goddamn tired, and it occurs to me that the trouble with life is that it is long." - Martha Gellhorn_

 

* * *

 

 

Another night spent in the lab after everyone else had gone to sleep, sifting through the day’s work of her departments to write up her report. There were more reports to go through as her department swelled in numbers, some of which caused her eyebrow to raise in concern. Angela enforced a strict ethics code for her department, and never hesitated to sit one of her scientists down if something seemed suspect. Lots of things seemed suspicious these days. Leaning further over her desk to reach a specific file, her breath caught in pain as the folder slipped through her fingertips.

 

Angela fell into her desk chair, letting the back of the chair hold her weight as she breathed through the worst of it. This hadn't been the first time she had been injured in the field, and it wouldn't be the last time her desire to be a combat medic made her job as head of medical research difficult. Grunting with the effort it took to pull herself into a better position, Angela could feel the burn of every stitched and patched wound she had tugged to the limit of what they could take before tearing. 

 

There hadn't been any reason for her to come in tonight, she was still off duty for another week. Her nanites had been hard-pressed to keep her alive during her last mission, staunching blood loss the best it could as she worked to keep her team alive. With every blink of her eyes, Angela could see the explosion rock the site they had camped in, the metal that had impaled her and kept her pressed against the ground as further explosions shook the very earth. 

 

The moment of horror after the explosions quieted, when the cries of the still breathing sounded, had snapped Angela to action that day. She had been lying among the flowers; her own blood sinking into her clothes and hair, mixing with the warm earth beneath her as if it was an offering to the world itself. The sound she made when she grabbed the metal pipe to keep it still as she hauled herself off the ground must have been horrific. But Angela knew, even then, that the jacket cloth she ripped free and shoved into her mouth couldn't muffle her scream as she wrenched the pipe free.

 

That was a move that could have,  _ should have _ killed her. She knew it in the moment, and every twinge along her side is forced to acknowledge it now. Angela wagered her nanites against her horrific trauma, and her nanites won as she saved countless lives that evening. If that had been the only injury she had sustained, her recovery time might not have been so drawn out, but Angela put herself on the line to protect the soldiers and civilians she treated.

 

It took hours for it to happen, but Jack had eventually pulled rank on her when he realized the blood soaked into her uniform was primarily hers. She had caught an enemy bullet in her shoulder while diving in front of him, laid out as he was in a gurney, and that had been the final straw for her superior officer and her body both. Spending the night treated by her own staff was enough of an embarrassment; Ana Amari overseeing the procedure and hissing in sympathy when she saw the full extent of the damage done was more than Angela's pride could take. 

 

She had departed the moment her people had the situation under control.

 

Now Angela rested and recovered, trying to keep it together while she processed the trauma she had gone through without neglecting her department. She still had files to go through, but the need to rest sang a siren’s song and Angela couldn't recall the last time she slept. The bags under her eyes had long since refused to be covered by makeup; in the almost two week's time she had been back on base, she had been hard pressed to do anything but play catch up on everyone's paperwork. Something twisted low in Angela's gut the deeper she searched through the backlog. Things weren't right in her domain.

 

Her head dropped back into the chair, eyes closing as she gave herself a moment to breathe. There were a few sources to the disquiet in her lab, and the thought of another talk on the basic principle of ‘do no harm’ that doctors stood for was uncomfortable. Most of the medical department had years, if not decades on Angela. She had long since proved her worth as a doctor and scientist, but there were those who thought she was too young to lead, too young to know where ethics and morals should give knee to progress.

 

A sharp knock sounded at her door, and Angela deigned it worth opening an eye. Red hair, a sharp suit, mismatched eyes that constantly saw too much. Another headache that Angela needed to deal with. A quick glance at the clock showed it was even later than she thought; Angela sighed to herself. In the morning, then, when she has more evidence on her side.

 

“Aren’t you  _ awfully _ young to be falling asleep at your desk?” Moira’s voice carried her sharp Dublin accent, making her wry tone sound even more patronizing.

 

Angela rolled her neck before opening her eyes. There was a flash of something in Moira's gaze, something with ice and teeth. Angela repressed a shiver as heat flooded through her, a challenge burning so deep in her blood she didn't know how to vent the smoke.

 

“Hm, I might too young to be this injured in the line of duty, but that's never stopped anyone younger than I from giving their life,” Angela said, voice dry and just barely touched with amusement.

 

Moira came closer, her hands resting on the front of Angela's desk. “However could we forget, the noble and young hero of the lab, off playing soldier in the field.”  There was that flicker of something in Moira’s eyes again, something so cold it burned before it was shuttered away once again.

 

“Medics are needed in the field. Playing hero isn't my interest, saving lives is.” Angela stood sharply, her chair rolling away from the force. Her side burned in agony, but she would show no weakness in her own lab. “That is our purpose here, Moira. Overwatch is here to save lives; just as they had saved my life, I will do what I must to save the lives of others.”

 

Moira was closer now. Keeping her thoughts clear was difficult, but she stood her ground. She had survived far worse than a disgruntled geneticist, and would not give knee to someone without a proper moral compass. “Do you think my time in the field is compromising my ability to run this lab, Moira.” The words were measured and professional on the surface, but they were the furthest thing from an actual question.   
  
Moira's eyes flashed. She knew a threat when she heard one. Some small part of Angela rumbled with pleasure.  _ Good _ , she thought,  _ how dare someone in the wrong continue to push her own agenda after coming into my grounds _ . Moira's hands rose, an open sign of deference.

 

“Of course not, lass.” A measured beat of silence between them as Moira’s hand came to rest on Angela's elbow. “You're more defensive than usual tonight. That last mission roughed you up good, didn't it?”

 

Angela hummed. “I'm fine, the nanites kept me going.”

 

Moira continued on, almost as if she hadn't heard Angela. “The lab’s worried you're pushing yourself too far after things went south with Ana.”

 

This made Angela startle, her side spiked with more pain then she wanted to endure.Moira’s hand at her arm gripped harder to help steady her, and that  _ look _ was back in Moira's eyes. “The lab doesn't know about that, Moira. So how did you find out?”

 

A small smile played at the edges of Moira's mouth. “You're not half as subtle as you think,  _ Doktor _ .”

 

Breathing slowly, Angela looked Moira in the eyes. “What do you want?”

 

Moira's free hand cupped her jaw, and Angela couldn't help but lean into the touch slightly. “Nothing. Just your attention from time to time when you're on base, I've missed our chess games.”

 

Angela's eyes fluttered briefly, almost missing the traces of something sinister burning in those mismatched eyes. It wouldn't due to show her hand to early, she thought as she leaned a little further into the embrace. Not yet, not while she still has the element of surprise.

 

“Is that all you're looking for, Moira?” Keeping her expression earnest but worried, Angela could see Moira circle the bait she was leaving. “I don't want you growing bitter when there's something I could do to keep things sweet between us.”

 

There was too much temptation, and for a moment Angela feared she had laid the bait too thickly. A million thoughts flashed through Moira's eyes, but in the end, she leaned forward to kiss Angela. Teeth and heat grazed across her lips, Moira seemed intent on devouring her whole. Each kiss felt like the meeting of opposing seasons, too harsh to be anything but a clash of natural phenomena.

 

Desire and hatred mixed in a pulsing crescendo, Angela found herself backed against her desk before she pivoted and lifted Moira onto the desktop. Angela had no plans to let another older woman see her at her most vulnerable, the sharp pain from lifting Moira was a small price to pay to stay in control. Laughed bubbled against her lips, Moira’s head tipping back into delight as her laughter rang through the room.

 

“You're getting ahead of yourself, girl, but color me impressed that you can lift me in your state.” Hand striking out in an unseen flash, Moira hit the patched up part of Angela's side while her other hand tugged on the Swiss woman's belt.

 

Gasping in pain, Angela's head bent and pressed into Moira's shoulder as she struggled to breathe. Pain bounced along every fiber of her being, overwhelming and intolerable without the adrenaline from a call to action. Moira pet the back of her head, hushing her in some twisted show of affection. Tears dripped down Angela's cheeks before she could stop them, and rage burned in her heart.

 

“Go and rest, Angela. If you're not at your best, then I don't want you at all.” Moira's eyes scanned over her as Angela pulled away, with a look she couldn't quite place. “Tempting as you may be, you chancer.” 

 

“Make sure you get your stitches checked in the morning, you've strained them quite a bit tonight.” Slipping out from Angela's grasp, she left the office, only hesitating when Angela called after her. 

 

“Say, Moira, what do you do when there are more than two queens on a board?” It was a gambit to ask, but Angela didn't feel right without at least trying to give Moira a chance in some manner.

 

“Same thing you do when there are too many cards in a deck.” Moira kept her back to Angela as she stood in the doorway. Neither in or out of her office, her voice flat and ungiving. “Ask who's lied, ask who's cheated. Most importantly, ask what game you're  _ actually _ playing.”

 

She disappeared into the labyrinth of halls outside of Angela's office. For the first time since she had come in, Angela felt like she could breathe again. Pulling her chair closer, she slumped into it for a moment's rest. Moira was draining, and Angela was certain she was going to sleep for hours after that exchange. As soon as she could find it in her to move again, as soon as the storm in her settled, she would leave. The game for her domain had only just begun, and Angela had no intention of deliberately losing.

**Author's Note:**

> MY HOMEGIRL GOT A PROPER NEMESIS!!!!! This is going to be a very long and wild ride, I think.
> 
> Come check me out on barddog if you liked this!


End file.
